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Choked Up

NYC’s Choked Up are a punk band formed in 2016 by friends and guitarists, Cristy and Rachel. After a few months and the bands first five songs, the two were joined on bass and drums respectively by their friends Santos and Wes at the bands first show at Punk Island. 2018 saw the release of Choked Up’s self-titled EP, chronicling their initial all-latinx lineup, an experience Cristy calls “a completely weird/magical thing.” With the departure of original bassist Santos, who played on all Choked Up’s recorded music, and the induction of new bassist Rose, Choked Up’s wavelength is more in tune than ever. A sense of purpose and intention has led Choked Up to center their music and existence around prioritizing people who find themselves on the margins of punk rock. “I have to keep building my own spaces for poc, queers, and women, but also show up for the folks in isolating scenes, cause we were all one of
them once.”

Choked Up’s EP is a pop-punk release with fun sounds that pair with looks at trauma and the following reclamation of body and mind. The first three songs, Cristy says are, “...in the form of poppy love songs about feeling brainwashed/depressed and healing together. Lomas Y Chisme is about reclaiming my soul/life—it’s one of the first Spanish songs I’ve released; Spanish is my first language...but I never wrote songs in it or had a queer Latinx punk/music community till now.” Choked Up’s self-titled EP is out now on Get Better Records.